Certain technique/bit of theory that abruptly elevated your playing to a new level?

Growth of music skill is not linear. Rather, you are in a rut for sometimes years, and then you learn something new, and wham, you're playing just jumped up more in 1 day than in the last year or two.

Was there a certain technique or bit of theory that abruptly elevated your playing to a new level? Something that took maybe only an hour to learn, yet had huge implications on your playing by opening a whole new door you never knew about.

This is not meant to sound like some shortcut for becoming good. I have been playing 20 years, and know there are no shortcuts in anything complex. But there may be some keys that open some doors that you never knew about b/c you didn't take lessons, or didn't do deliberate practice, etc.

For example, the simple act of moving the minor pentatonic scale down 3 frets opens up an whole new major sounding scale. Instantly. Nice to know. Or, maybe you learned a new mode like Dorian/Mixolydian where your solo sound changed instantly, just by moving the major scale up or down a few frets

Or, maybe it was it finally learning chord construction which allowed you to understand the intervals in the chord tones, and opened the door for including 7th chords (or some other kind) into your vocabulary. etc. One hour, and suddenly, you understand chords, and are now exploring and expanding, since it's not just dots to be memorized.

Can you think of something that was a real "Eurekha!" moment that you had wished you had learned years sooner?

Of course.Top 5:5. This was not really a specific moment, but I literally doubled (according to the metronome) my playing speed in about a month of LOTS of practice. Compare this to 3 years of playing (slowly, lol) before.4. The time it finally hit me that I didn't have to learn songs completely perfectly note-for-note anymore, searching through shitty tabs and replaying youtube over and over again.FREEDOM! Not to mention vastly improved improvisation.3. Not really a single moment in time either, but understanding the whole concept of intervals...understanding the positions on the fretboard of fifths, octaves, and major/minor thirds, most importantly. Once I started applying these more, Eureka! for sure.2. Discovering the Minor Pentatonic scale. You know. The basic pattern that makes it insanely easy to create a bajillion rock solos.1. Said it once before, I'll say it again, LEARNING TO PRACTICE UPSTROKES. The greatest miracle that ever happened to my guitar speed/technical ability. Really part of number 5. though, lol

A lot of what KailM said. Learning to alternate pick. Learning to pick from my wrist instead of using my thumb and forefinger. Learning that tremolo picking does actually involve timing, as opposed to just PICK AS FAST AS YOU CAN...

100% down with this - this was the single most important thing I ever learnt for speed guitar. It drastically changed my timing to a really accurate thing. Took a while to build it into outside picking - since outside picking needs a "hop" on a downward string change and everything is wrist tremolo style. It's really weird when I first started wrist only loose tremolo picking - every thing seemed much less accurate timing - until I stated recording and listened to it - was 100% spot on. I cringe every time I see video showing muting using thumb/forefinger action :P

For me it was using the Pinky...for a long time I rarely did unless just in Chords. I had to force myself to use it just as much as the other fingers and after a long time of workin at it, I noticed I was no longer a 3 fingered lead player!

Look at your hand as you gallop, and then look what happens to the shape of your hand during the held chord. Your hand should always be as relaxed as when you're just holding that chord! There's no advantage to the amount of tension your holding in your picking hand atm - funnily enough, if you could eliminate it I bet you could keep up with the song. Tension has massive impact on speed and stamina. Look at the picking hands of these guitarists -

Whoaw... all this metal... You guys need to play more reggae :p. It helped my playing into being rhythmically capable. That sounds funny maybe, but when there is only three chords to play and in one rhythm, what can you do? You're role isn't to shred the bejesus out of the axe your holding. So you do a lot with your picking hand, muting stricks, playing sixths, all types of different intervals at the right time, making a simple chord structure live and breath with small things. It learned me all these things

The bit that always gets me is the bit 32s in where he plays the line and slowly adds harmony while maintaining speed and definition. ****ing ridiculous. Caused me to rethink and rework my tremolo picking technique a lot and helped me work towards some tough riffs. (not anywhere near his level obviously!)